


Home Is Where The Heart Is

by serenehowell



Series: 4:32 [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Domestic Phan, M/M, Non AU, Phan Fluff, Phan reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 13:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9441446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenehowell/pseuds/serenehowell
Summary: After moving out of the London apartment, Dan and Phil find themselves ready for the next stage of their life together.





	

**Author's Note:**

> [Read on tumblr](http://serenehowell.tumblr.com/post/156281933230/home-is-where-the-heart-is)

There was an indescribable eeriness about an empty apartment that had previously been filled with belongings. Boxes upon boxes stacked on top of each other were left in their place, with only a few unwanted items remaining. Phil’s bed was being left behind, it’s age clearly audible by the creaking emitted from the wooden slats as well as Dan’s out of tune piano; all these things too bulky to easily dispose of.

As cheesy as it sounded, it did feel like the end of an era for Dan and Phil. After living in that apartment for over five years, they had grown attached to the place, even despite it’s many flaws. It gave it an endearing quality of sorts, its cracks and leaks and creaks only added to the charm of it all. 

But the time was right, they had been meaning to move for a while. Even the fans were willing for them to buy a house, so they were hardly surprised when the news that they were moving broke. Of course, an inevitable shitstorm still occurred with the confirmation of their relationship, but that was to be expected. 

They had found the perfect place in Kingston, just South of the Thames, wanting a slight change of scenery. It was a decently sized three bedroom house, keeping in mind plans for the future, with a large garden in a respectable area. 

“Is that all the boxes?” Dan called out, staggering up the stairs after losing count of how many times he had climbed them that day. “Phil?” Dan called out again, not hearing a response. 

He wandered back into the apartment, looking for Phil. “There you are,” Dan found him standing in the lounge, just staring blankly into the empty room. “Are all the boxes packed up now?”

“Yeah,” Phil sighed, sounding slightly distant and deflated.

“Are you ok?” Dan linked his hand with Phil’s, furrowing his brows in concern. “You sound a bit...out of it.”

“It’s just…” Phil took a breath, “I’m gonna miss this place.” He turned to face Dan, tears glistening in his eyes.”

“Oh Phil, you sop!” Dan chuckled endearingly, pulling Phil into a hug. “You know, I am too, this place means a lot, to the both of us.” He mumbled into Phil’s shoulder, starting to feel quite emotional himself. 

“It’s just, we’ve made so many memories here, and now it just feels like we’re leaving them all behind.”

“But hey think of it like this-” Dan broke away from the hug, linking their hands together again, “-we get to make new memories now, especially knowing all the exciting things that are to come.”

“Ok, I know _I_ was being soppy, but that was just way too cheesy!” Phil laughed.

“Hey, _it was supposed to be cheesy_ ,” Dan raised his eyebrow and winked.

“Did you…just reference pinof 1?” Phil rolled his eyes but Dan only shrugged, a huge grin on his face.

“C’mon let’s get out of here, preferably before one of us has a breakdown.”

~

It took a few weeks to get adjusted to the new house, and having to become acquainted with a completely new area wasn’t the _most_ helpful. The size of their new property posed a bit of a problem in the beginning too. After constantly working for a few years and saving up over that time, they were able to afford a slightly more extravagant house, compared to what they were living in after moving to London with hardly any money. But after a while, they got used to the extra space and the inadvertent exercise was appreciated.

“Hey, Phil,” Dan wandered into their shared bedroom, leaning against the door frame, “should we go get a dog?”

Phil, who was laying on the bed, looked up over the top of the book he was reading and stared quizzically at Dan. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Let’s get a dog,” Dan shrugged nonchalantly, “we’ve been talking about it for ages now so why don’t we just start looking?” He leapt towards the bed, ripping Phil’s book out of his hands and throwing it to the side. 

“But are we ready though?” Phil folded his arms across his chest. “It’s a huge commitment and-”

Dan gripped Phil by the shoulders and started shaking him, a bit _too_ violently in his opinion. “Yes of course we’re ready-” Dan chuckled, with Phil desperately flailing his arms, “-we’ve been ready for a million fucking years, listen to yourself man!”

“Stop!” Phil wheezed, in between his own bouts of laughter. “Ok, ok, I get your point!” He playfully whacked Dan’s shoulder, finally getting him to stop. “Well I’ve got some emails to answer so we can go a bit later-”

“Nope, we’re going now,” Dan shuffled off the bed, trying to drag Phil by the hand along with him. Phil yelped, not able to react to the unexpected action quick enough and was only just able to stand steadily on his feet.

“Ok, fine, we’re going now I guess,” Phil muttered, but finding Dan’s over-excitable, childlike behaviour rather endearing. He was still being pulled along by Dan out of the door, even though he had agreed to his plan. “So are you going to let go of my hand anytime soon?”

“Nah, I don’t think so, I quite like holding it if I’m honest.”

~

Phil was slowly starting to regret going along with Dan’s idea. He seemed to fall in love with every dog they saw at the shelter, insisting every time that they had found ‘the one’.

“But Phiiiil, I love him,” Dan pouted, staring into the kennel of a particularly cute looking Golden Retriever called Charlie. “See, he’s looking at me, he loves me too!”

“Dan,” Phil sighed, rubbing his temples, “this is the sixth dog you’ve said you’ve fallen in love with, we can’t take them all!” 

“We can try…”

“Sorry, excuse me!” A young, male worker interrupted. “One of our female dogs recently had some puppies and they are now old enough to be adopted, would you like to have a look?”

“Yes, we would love to!” Dan’s eyes lit up, jumping in before Phil could disagree.

“Really Dan, is this a good idea?” Phil wanted to be annoyed, but Dan’s enthusiasm was too adorable. “More dogs that you’re going to get attached to?”

Dan wasn’t listening, he had already started to follow the worker, too engrossed by the thought of seeing the puppies. “Yes, this is a great idea,” Dan finally responded to Phil, who was lagging behind slightly. “We could get a _puppy_ Phil!” Dan paused for a moment to allow Phil to catch up and linked hands with him. “Imagine that Phil, our own cute little puppy, how sweet would that be,” Dan fluttered his eyelashes, giving Phil his own puppy eyes.

“Honestly, you’re like a five year old,” Phil sighed affectionately, a small smile creeping onto his face. “C’mon, let's see the puppies then.”

Dan let out a rather high pitched squeal for a fully grown man as they were led to a large kennel on the other side of the building.

“Now here we have-” the worker gestured towards the kennel “-Ela. She’s a Springer Spaniel and has had five puppies, but we’ve only got one left up for adoption.” He unlocked the kennel door and picked up one of the half asleep puppies. “This is Pepper, she’s ten weeks old.” 

Dan and Phil stood frozen, enchanted by the puppy, only snapping out of it when they were motioned into the kennel. 

“Would you like to hold her?” The worker smiled, quite obviously being able to tell that they had taken a liking to the puppy.

Dan nodded, his mouth wide open but unable to say anything apart from the occasional cooing. His heart melted as soon as Pepper was in his arms; her soft fur felt warm and comforting against his skin. When she nuzzled her nose into the crook of his arm, he almost died on the spot.

Phil made his way over and gently started to stroke the top of her head, feeling the same level of fondness as Dan. He locked eyes with his boyfriend for a moment, their silence speaking a thousand words.

“Dan,” Phil spoke slowly and softly, “I think we need her, don’t you.”

“I completely agree,” Dan smiled.

~

The adoption process didn’t start immediately, with some of the admin work taking more time than Dan and Phil had imagined. But finally, after a few long weeks of paperwork and home checks, Pepper was finally home. There had been a slight debate over whether they should change her name or not, but they had both decided that Pepper suited her perfectly.

“Dan, say hi to the ‘Shrek is daddy’ groupchat.” 

It was a Tuesday night and Dan was doing his liveshow, the first since they had brought Pepper home. Even after all those years, Dan ensured that he made time weekly to speak to his audience and keep them an integral part of his life. Yet, he was still to tell them about the rather huge change in his life.

“Well, hello, you _weird_ bunch of people,” Dan laughed, his audience’s humour never failing to amuse him. 

“Right so what’s going down in the chat,” Dan paused for a moment, trying to read a couple of messages before they disappeared right before his eyes. “#getphil, #getphil, #GETPHIL, well it looks like you want me to get Phil. I would, but he’s not actually here right now.” Ever since coming out to their audience, Dan had felt more comfortable bringing Phil into his liveshows and vice versa, but they still always make sure they have some separate stream time.

The rather loud slamming of the front door alerted Dan that Phil was back from walking Pepper. 

“Was that Phil?” Dan read from the chat, knowing that they would pick up on the noise. “Yes it was-PHIL,” he called out, “GET YOUR ASS IN HERE.”

It took a few moments for Phil to arrive, having to sort Pepper out. “Hello!” Phil waved, poking his head through the door.

“It’s AmazingPhil ahhh!” Dan flapped his arms around, putting on a high pitched voice as Phil made his way over to the desk and crouched on the floor.

“Hi Katie, Maggie, Tom and Zara!” Phil read off the chat, ignoring Dan’s silly behaviour.

They continued on like that for a few minutes, reading random questions and giving equally random answers. With it nearing 10 o’clock, they decided that it was the time to start wrapping up the liveshow. Whilst saying their last goodbyes, they couldn’t help but notice a sudden eruption of messages in the chat, everyone clearly losing their shit. The chat was moving far too fast to make sense of what was happening, but one common word kept appearing: dog.

Dan slowly turned his head to glance behind him, only to see the bedroom door wide open and an innocent looking Pepper sitting in front of it. There was no going back, he decided, so he bit the bullet and _finally_ introduced the puppy to their audience.

“So this-” Dan scurried to the other side of the room, picking up Pepper, “-is our new puppy Pepper and she is _adorable_!” His voice went unnaturally high pitched as he sat back down in front of the desk.

“He’s been like that all week,” Phil rolled his eyes, but with an affectionate grin on his face. “Sorry we didn’t tell you guys earlier but things just got a bit hectic, didn’t they Dan-” he expected a response from his boyfriend, but he was too busy cuddling and stroking Pepper. 

“Oh, what? Yeah it’s been busy,” Dan finally processed what Phil said. “Ok now you guys know, we really should be going now.”

~

_@danisnotonfire: meet pepper, the newest addition to the howell-lester household! #2become3 instagram.com/p/BOccndpBfHC/_

“Two become three? Really Dan?” Phil was lying in bed next to Dan, scrolling through his phone and cringing slightly at his new Instagram post. “That has to be the most cliché thing I’ve ever heard!” 

“What! There’s _nothing_ wrong with it, maybe I’m just waiting for three to become four.”

**Author's Note:**

> I made 4:32 into a mini series (whoop)! Its more like a collection of stories that connect to each other, but can be read separately.
> 
> Find me on tumblr [@serenehowell](serenehowell.tumblr.com)


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